A non-Netflix show has topped the Nielsen Streaming Rankings for the first time over the week of December 14th to 20th. Disney+’s The Mandalorian had its Season 2 finale that week and took the top spot, the first time a streamer other than Netflix has had a show at Number 1 during the short tenure of these rankings (Amazon’s The Boys previously made it as high as Number 3). The only other genre show in the Top 10 was Netflix’s encore run of Supernatural which held steady from the prior week at the Number 6 slot. Amazon’s The Expanse debuted on December 16th, but surprisingly did not place in the Top 10. The Stand also debuted that week–on CBS All Access–but that streamer is not being captured by these rankings yet.
Nielsen also released the Top 15 shows for 2020, which covers from when the rankings started in August to the end of the year. As with the Top 10, this list covers originals and encore runs on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, and Hulu. Only four genre shows made it to that list with Supernatural ranking the highest at Number 7. It was followed by Lucifer at Number 6, The Mandalorian at Number 13 and surprising entry Vampire Diaries at Number 15. That latter series did not make it into the Top 10 any one week during 2020’s tracking period but was apparently hovering just beyond that with its streaming viewership. Note that Vampire Diaries and Supernatural had many more episodes available for viewing (171 and 318 respectively) while The Mandalorian had the highest viewership per episode at nearly one billion minutes (see the stats below).
The Nielsen Streaming Ratings rank the shows/movies on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, and Hulu based on the number of minutes watched during the week by U.S. viewers on television sets (mobile devices are not included at this point). The numbers are extrapolated based on the Nielsen sampling of families who have meters monitoring their viewing habits. Also note, shows with more episodes available will tend to have a higher number of minutes watched. Following are the genre shows in the Top 10 for the week which includes the estimated minutes viewed (the prior week rank is in parenthesis).
Digital Ratings for the Week of Dec-7 to Dec-13
1 (2) The Mandalorian (Disney+) 1.34 Billion, Weeks on Chart: 8
6 (6) Supernatural (Netflix) 684 Million, Weeks on Chart: 4
Digital Ratings Top 15 for August thru December 2020
7 Supernatural (Netflix) 20.3B Minutes, Episodes: 318
8 Lucifer (Netflix) 19.0B Minutes, Episodes: 75
13 The Mandalorian (Disney+) 14.5B Minutes, Episodes: 16
15 Vampire Diaries (Netflix) 14.1B Minutes, Episodes: 171
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